Chapter 18
Chapter 18
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: I Will Rule Solely by Military Law (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I don't like killing. I only killed first because I didn't want to die.
From the start, how many truly insane people are there who enjoy killing others?
However, Viscount Maxit was the one and only person I had been sharpening my blade to kill.
[Isn't Viscount Maxit the captain of the Ghost Cavalry, the one said to make even crying children stop in their tracks?]
[I've heard he boasts cavalry skills renowned even in the capital.]
[A knight who made a name for himself in the capital? That's reassuring.]
Surprisingly, my first impression of him wasn't bad. I'd heard he had a great reputation.
In person, his sturdy appearance inspired even more trust.
Above all, he'd shown himself calmly mediating between the divided nobles.
[Moving the grain to prepare for war can wait. Right now, our top priority is grasping the empire's movements.]
[But what if the main imperial force comes charging in while we're doing that?]
[That's excessive worry. The imperial army is currently besieging the capital—they won't abandon nearly captured prey for minnows and march all the way here.]
That said, our own situation wasn't great enough to march directly to relieve the capital.
Slowly reorganizing and then striking the enemy's supply lines was the best option for now.
I fell for that sweet talk too. Or maybe it even was the right answer.
If the imperial main force truly hadn't arrived here in a mere fortnight.
[Th-this is bad! My lord!]
[What is it!]
[V-Viscount Maxit killed the soldiers guarding the warehouse last night and fled with his men!]
[That fucking...!!]
The Ghost Cavalry captain who makes crying children stop, my ass. You fucking bastard.
And he didn't just run—he took more than half the warehouse supplies with him.
Thanks to him, we had to fight the war stripped of what little we had left.
'I swore that if he pulled this shit again, I'd definitely kill him... And sure enough.'
People don't change. Right now, I'm even grateful for that unchanging truth.
No empty words—I'm truly thankful. For remaining an irredeemable son of a bitch to the end.
Thanks to that, this time I can kill him without a shred of guilt.
"You mustn't execute Viscount Maxit!"
Yet, unexpectedly, a fair number of nobles stepped up to oppose his execution.
I was dumbfounded. The guy killed soldiers and tried to steal supplies—what?
Yes, he'd committed a grave crime, but since he was a noble, he needed a proper trial?
"Only His Majesty can judge nobles. Thus, a proper trial is the lawful procedure."
"Besides, Viscount Maxit is the famous captain of the Ghost Cavalry. It would be a terrible waste to kill him now."
"......"
I slowly scanned the faces of the nobles opposing Viscount Maxit's execution.
Sure enough... Not a single exception—they were all nobles who had been outside and only recently joined us.
Whether it's physiognomy or background that reveals the truth, I don't know. In any case, I immediately countered.
"This isn't peacetime. He tried to steal military supplies during war, and even attempted to kill soldiers. And you want to let that slide?"
"Lord Baron is right. Attempting to embezzle supplies in wartime is a capital crime punishable by death."
"He even tried to kill soldiers? How can you spew nonsense about reusing such a monstrous killer?"
On the flip side, the nobles who had been captured as prisoners, locked in dungeons, and rescued all sided with me.
They were loyalists who answered the earl's call without hesitation and fought to the end before being taken.
Though most had fallen in battle and their numbers were few, they were reliable allies.
"I've already said it. This isn't peacetime or even regular wartime—we must fend off the enemy at our gates first."
"Heh, do you truly not know that internal enemies are more fearsome than external ones?"
"Executing a noble without His Majesty's permission is outright treason."
"That damn treason talk! If you're such a loyalist, go lead troops to the capital yourself!"
"Enough."
The cold command that slipped from my lips, like winter itself, silenced the nobles' squabble.
How their topics differed, yet their bickering looked just like before my regression.
But I know even that was my fault for standing by idly and leaving it to others.
"I said it from the start. Regardless of status high or low, I will rule solely by military law."
Therefore.
I will never repeat the same mistake.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The Arpen Kingdom had strong noble power, while the king's authority was correspondingly weak.
This stemmed from the confrontation between the empire and the alliance. Though things were quiet now.
Both then and now, the empire was a nation proclaiming continental unification and expanding accordingly.
The alliance had been born as a system to counter that threatening empire.
Naturally, the empire and alliance were bitter enemies without question.
Not just large and small military clashes, but even strict bans on exchanges.
The cold war between the empire and alliance wasn't anything special. The problem was...
[Iron is best from the empire... but there's no way to get it.]
[...The alliance has things the empire lacks, but no way to obtain them either.]
What the empire could easily acquire, the alliance couldn't, and vice versa—it was common.
Despite their opposition, demand only grew.
This is where the Arpen Kingdom came in. Astonishingly, the kingdom wasn't part of the alliance,
due to the empire's check against having an alliance member right next door.
The alliance didn't force it into the fold just to irk the empire greatly,
since the kingdom's national power wasn't that impressive. So it just existed as a kingdom.
[Wait, so trading with the Arpen Kingdom isn't forbidden?]
[If we play this right...]
Exactly. Direct exchanges between the empire and alliance, or alliance and empire, were legally banned,
but trading with the Arpen Kingdom wasn't. They exploited that loophole.
Of course, it wasn't anything grandiose. Just trading with the kingdom—that was all.
The items just happened to be imperial or alliance-made. That's where the issue arose.
Trade increased between the alliance-leaning south and empire-leaning east,
naturally filling the pockets of eastern and southern nobles with more coin.
And then as now, big money meant power. The kingdom was no exception.
[Nobles can only be judged through a proper trial with His Majesty's participation.]
At a glance, it seemed to strengthen the kingdom's royal authority.
But in reality, it was a device to protect nobles who committed grave crimes.
After all, the king had to hold the trial, so they had no choice but to transport them to the capital.
[Your Majesty, there may be misunderstandings. We must investigate thoroughly from the start.]
Then the noble would bribe the capital's nobles and sway the trial.
Naturally, with strong noble influence, even the king couldn't ignore them.
Time dragged on, and eventually, they'd be acquitted and released amid the ambiguity.
Unless there was ironclad evidence or crimes like treason,
as long as they greased enough palms, most would be exonerated and restored.
That was the basis for Viscount Maxit's bold actions.
'Right now, the earl's domain has king-appointed nobles fighting earl-appointed ones. They won't let a royalist like me just kill him.'
And the royalist nobles moved exactly as Viscount Maxit calculated,
having joined late and lacking strong justification.
At best, they could claim protecting the king's taxes—hardly convincing.
In that situation, losing the one notable figure, Viscount Maxit?
They'd be hopelessly pushed back in the power struggle by the earl's faction.
So even in the worst case, he thought he'd just end up imprisoned.
"...Therefore, I sentence Viscount Maxit, who killed an innocent soldier and attempted to embezzle military supplies during wartime, to death."
"Wh-what...?"
"Know full well that this violates not only the nobles' duty to defend this land, but even sullies His Majesty's noble command."
He hadn't expected to be sentenced to death and dragged straight to the execution ground.
For a moment, he wondered if it was a dream, but the fervor of the crowd gathered before the execution site proved it real.
Only then realizing this was reality, he hurriedly knelt before the baron.
"I-I was wrong! No, I did wrong! Please, spare my life...!!"
Even the famous Ghost Cavalry captain had no choice before death.
That made Cain all the more disgusted. If he valued his life so much,
why had he so calmly harmed others to fill his own belly?
"No mercy. For me—not the executioner—to carry out your execution personally is the final mercy I grant you."
"W-wait...!!"
Slash!!
Soon, the jet-black greatsword on his shoulder gleamed ominously.
That was the last sight Viscount Maxit beheld in life, and it became his final utterance.
Meanwhile, Cain grabbed the viscount's severed head and raised it high toward the sky.
"If you have eyes, see! If you have ears, hear! Henceforth, regardless of status high or low, anyone who violates military law will be strictly punished by military law!"
He personally beheaded a fellow noble and even rewarded the soldiers who fulfilled their duties,
all witnessed without exception by every man, woman, and child gathered there.
And with the baron's impartial justice, the morale in the earl's domain soared to the heavens.